Beer pong (also called Beirut) is a game that involves propelling a ping pong ball across a table with the aim of making the ball land in one of several cups. The game generally involves two teams, which may be an individual, with one team standing at one end of the table and trying to land a ping pong ball in one of the other team's cups at the other end of the table. When a point is scored, the loser consumes the contents of the cup where the ball landed. When a team has scored in all of their opponents cups, the game is won. While having a simple premise, beer pong has a remarkable number of variations and styles (House Rules), which can depend on the area of the country, state, or even in which house the game is being played.
The origins of the game are uncertain, though the New York Times attributes it to Dartmouth College in the late 1940s or early 1950s. According to the New York Times article, the game seems to have originated on the fraternity-dominated Dartmouth campus in the early 1950s. American history professor emeritus Jere Daniell (Dartmouth class of 1955) stated that he played the game as an undergraduate. This version used a regulation ping pong table and paddles as opposed to an ordinary table. Numerous sources state that beer pong was played on the Dartmouth College campus throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including most famously by Chris Miller, class of 1963, the screenwriter of the film Animal House, which was based on his experiences as a brother of Alpha Delta Phi at Dartmouth. The game without paddles has a murkier beginning. The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper of Princeton University attributed the origins of the paddle-less game where balls are thrown into cups to the early 1980s at Lehigh University or Bucknell University.
The original, simplest and most common place to play beer pong is on a ping pong table. However the game can be played on any flat surface with enough space to hold the two formations of cups, although it is typically preferred to be played on a surface that is 8′ or larger. Many frequent players will create a personalized table for use by friends and visitors. In general, this will be a plywood board cut to proper size, painted with sports, school or fraternity symbols and then given a coating to liquid-proof.
On each side of the table, an equilateral triangle formation of cups is assembled, with the convergence point focusing on the other team. Different variations allow for different numbers of cups, although ten (4-3-2-1) and six-cup (3-2-1) are the most common. Some other practiced, although less common arrangements, are seven-cup (2-3-2) in a hexagonal pattern and nine-cup (1-2-3-2-1) in a nine ball pattern. This diamond shape may also be used with four cups (1-2-1). When playing on a larger field or with larger teams, ten or more cups are more frequently used. The distance between one team's cups should be no greater than the diameter of a ball so that a ball can touch both cups. If the ball cannot touch adjacent cups, the cups must be properly placed.
It is an object of the invention to provide an inflatable table having two target areas, each of the target areas comprising recesses in the top surface of the table.
It is another object of the invention to provide an inflatable table that can be easily transported and set up at any desired location.
It is another object of the invention to provide an inflatable table having target areas that are durable, lightweight and easy to manufacture.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after reading the disclosure of the invention.